MKY to BNE flight delays
2,428 flights · January 2025 – August 2026 · Australian Government BITRE
82.17%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
3.01%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
—
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
—
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Which airline you fly changes the odds here. Qantas arrived on time 42.3 points more often than Jetstar over the same period on the same route — same airports, same weather, same air traffic control. A gap that survives all of that is about how the two airlines are run.
Cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth pricing here: 3.01% of scheduled flights never operated. A late flight still gets you there. A cancelled one leaves you rebooking, and on a route with few daily departures that can mean losing a day.
Flights from Mackay to Brisbane keep to schedule more reliably than most. On a route this punctual the day you fly matters more than the airline you pick.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over January 2025 – August 2026, Qantas arrived on time most often on MKY to BNE. Jetstar was late most often. Flights ran closest to schedule in May and worst in January.
Every airline on MKY to BNE
Ranked by how many flights each one operated. A carrier with fewer than 100 flights in the period is listed but not graded.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virgin Australia | 1,052 | 85.21% | 2.28% | — | B |
| QantasLink | 607 | 86.37% | 3.29% | — | B |
| Qantas | 550 | 86.6% | 3.64% | — | B |
| Jetstar | 219 | 44.29% | 4.11% | — | F |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
The return leg
BNE to MKY Brisbane back to Mackay 78.12% on time DCommon questions
Are flights from Mackay to Brisbane usually delayed?
82.17% of flights on the MKY to BNE route arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, so roughly 2 in every ten arrived late. That is better than the average route in this record.
Which airline is most on time from Mackay to Brisbane?
Qantas, at 86.6% on time across 550 flights. The least punctual on the route was Jetstar at 44.29%.
How often are MKY to BNE flights cancelled?
3.01% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 30 in every thousand. That is high enough that cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth planning around.
What is the best month to fly Mackay to Brisbane?
May, when 89.3% of flights arrived on time. The worst was January at 72.4%.
What these figures do and do not tell you
Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on MKY to BNE during January 2025 – August 2026, as reported by the airlines to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. "On time" is the federal definition: arriving at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
A route's record is a description of the past, not a forecast. Weather, air traffic control and the aircraft's earlier flights that day drive most delays, and none of them are predictable from a historical rate. What the record does tell you is whether this route runs late more often than others, and which carrier on it has the better history — which is the part you can actually act on when you book.
Cancellations are counted separately from delays because they are a different problem for a traveller: a late flight still gets you there. How the grade is calculated →